The Indigo Girl

The whipping post is a symbol that illustrates The Price of Freedom and Society’s Role in the Normalization of Enslavement. Though Boyd never depicts its use, the whipping post represents the ever-present threat of violence, torture, and death from enslavers, plantation overseers, and all white South Carolina citizens against enslaved individuals. The whipping post explicitly showcases the level of brutality and dehumanization employed by enslavers to ensure perfect obedience, and it is also a symbol of Eliza’s moral ambiguity. Although she repeatedly requests that the post be removed from their Waccamaw plantation, it soon becomes clear that her abhorrence of the post is not necessarily its use in the institution of enslavement. Instead, her dislike of the whipping post stems from her distaste for needless violence. However, because the whipping post is never removed, the author implies that it continues to be used in her absence. Thus, the whipping post also carries the notion of Eliza’s failure to oppose societal norms that result in the brutal abuse of enslaved individuals on her father’s plantations.